


The Doctor and the Raven

by theflyingdalek



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: New regeneration, The Doctor and the raven, Tiffany hopes someone will read and like this, dw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-19
Updated: 2013-01-18
Packaged: 2017-11-26 00:28:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 4,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/644561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theflyingdalek/pseuds/theflyingdalek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor, with a new face and a new body, has received a distress call via psychic paper to a new planet. On this planet, he meets a very angry and vengeful woman called The Raven.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, all. I know not all of you like to get invested in non-canon characters, but here I am presenting you with two. My mental casting of this regeneration of the Doctor is the lovely and dashing Richard Armitage. I haven't mentally cast the companion yet, so feel free to come up with your own people in your minds.
> 
> I really like this story, and I hope you enjoy. 
> 
> There is a very good chance that I will write more with this pair.

The TARDIS made a crash landing.

Well, most of the TARDIS landings weren't exactly smooth, but the Doctor hadn't felt _quite_ that jostled about in a long time. It felt as if the TARDIS was almost about to land on its side. But she was a clever one, and landed right side up.

The Doctor pulled his psychic paper out of his pocket and glanced at the coordinates again. He compared them to the ones on the screen on the console, and they matched up. 

The SOS message had appeared the night before when the Doctor was brushing his teeth and almost frightened the Doctor to death. He hadn't received a message through psychic paper since River. He had rushed to read the message, but quickly realized that the message was neatly printed, almost in typeface, nothing like River's messy scrawl. 

The next day, he set the TARDIS to the correct coordinates as he was getting dressed, wondering just what he was getting himself into. This was a new regeneration, and that always took some getting used to. This body seemed incredibly tall and was a hassle to find the right clothes for. He hadn't even really settled on a look yet, but because this new planet was covered in forests and jungles, he figured that a safari outfit from the 1800s was appropriate. Also, he liked the hat. New adventure clothing for a new planet.

Alentara. The planet was a human one, but one that had been cut off from the rest of the universe. Perhaps because the planet was simply too far away, but the Doctor had a sneaking suspicion that it was because the planet was rather dark and scary looking from afar. Well, up close as well, since the planet was far from the sun and had a strange and eerie sort of purple lighting which felt like it was constantly buzzing in a very electric sort of way.

But the Doctor loved new planets, and as he shrugged on his light brown jacket he grinned. He could smell the adventure in the air.

The moment the Doctor stepped off of the TARDIS, he realized that he was in the middle of a very dense forest. The leaves above him blocked out some of the little purple light that would have reached the floors, so the Doctor had to strain his eyes to see if there was a path going anywhere.

Suddenly, something leaped out of the bushes and tackled him to the ground. The Doctor struggled against the arms pinning him to the ground, and realized the being was smaller than him. The being seemed to realize the same thing, as it then deftly rolled aside and jumped onto two feet. The Doctor clumsily pulled himself up and looked at the person in front of him. It was a woman.

A woman with a gun pointed at him. She quite a ways shorter than him. Her hair was covered in mud, but he supposed that it was brown when it wasn't. She had dried mud caked on her arms and clothing too. She looked like she had been fighting for years. She looked savage. She looked angry.

The Doctor put his hands in the air in a universal gesture of "Hey look! I'm unarmed."

"Please put the gun down", he asked hopefully.

The woman, still looking quite angry, kept pointing the gun at him.

"Well, maybe that isn't the right approach then", the Doctor twittered, "Leave the gun pointed at me please."

"Who are you?", the woman asked brashly.

"I'm the Doctor.", the Doctor replied cheerfully.

"Where are you from?"

 

"Well, that is a rather long story.. I'm not quite sure you want me to get into that...", the Doctor trailed off.

"You're irritating", the woman growled, "has anyone ever told you that?"

"That is rather hurtful. And you haven't even introduced yourself yet."

"People call me the Raven.", she barked.

"The Doctor and the Raven", the Doctor murmured.

"Your clothes are strange", she noted with narrowed eyes.

"No stranger than yours", the Doctor huffed.

The woman was dressed in a dark jumpsuit made out of slightly shiny synthetic material. 

"You dress like... oh what is that word? I used to read about them in books. Old Earth history. All those years ago... _Safari!_ Yes! You look like those people in those old photographs who went down to Earth Egypt to hunt lions and such with antique guns."

"I'm not planning on shooting anything", the Doctor replied frowning. "And I like my clothing! I'm an adventurer. I'm wearing adventurer clothes!"

"The hat is silly", she argued.

"Is not!"

"What are you doing here?", the woman asked.

"I'm here, because I received a distress signal from this planet.", the Doctor explained. "Do you have any idea who it came from?"

The woman gazed at him blankly for a moment before shaking her head.

"No use for you here now. You should just pop back to wherever you came from."

"I'm not leaving until I find whoever sent out that signal", the Doctor replied, frowning.

"They're dead", the Raven said emotionlessly. "They're all dead now."

"What do you mean, they're all dead?"

"The people who sent that distress signal. My people. All gone now."

"How?", the Doctor asked, "I don't understand!"

"Not how", the Raven corrected, "What."

To the Doctor's surprise, the Raven lowered her gun. Her frown and glare did not go away. The Doctor thought that her frown may have deepened, but that might've just been his imagination. He noticed that she did not holster her gun.

"Follow me."


	2. Chapter 2

The Doctor quietly followed the strange woman.

"What is your real name?", she asked, turning her head to address him.

The Doctor glanced up quickly.

"What do you mean? My name is the Doctor."

She snorted.

"You do not have to lie to me. I understand. I lived by a name that I chose for myself for many years. I know what it feels like to know your name in your head, but fear too much to even whisper it aloud to yourself. I know what it feels like to know that everybody who knew my name is dead. When you're ready, Doctor, I will listen."

The Doctor looked at the Raven strangely, as if trying to figure her out. He shook his head and didn't answer. There didn't seem to be a right answer to what she said. They walked on in silence for a while before the Raven signaled the Doctor to be silent. 

They had stopped in front of a strange looking cave. It was large and made of stone, however it seemed to be emitting a certain sheer. It wasn't glowing; it was iridescent. 

The Raven pulled the Doctor by his arm towards a small opening in the cave, the opening was small and a hedgehog may have been able to squeeze through. She motioned for the Doctor to look through the hole. He looked and what he saw terrified him.

Daleks.

The Doctor stayed frozen, staring at the mass of what seemed to be three hundred Daleks moving about the cave in formation. After a minute or two, the Raven jerked on his arm, pulling him away. She kept hold of his arm as her walk became a brisk jog towards where the Doctor had first found her. When they were a safe distance away, they stopped.

"Daleks", the Doctor sighed.

"So you know them?", the Raven asked.

"Yes.", the Doctor replied gravely, "What I don't know is what they are doing here."

"They came here years ago, from the sky. They set up in the cave where we worship and convinced many people that they were our gods. Their followers began to track the rest of us down and kill us. It was like herding cattle. People were afraid. Nearly everyone died."

"Everyone but you."

"I wasn't afraid to fight back", the Raven snapped.

"I can see that", the Doctor replied, eying the gun still held in her hand.

"I'm not ashamed of it", the Raven stated as she began to start a fire.

The Doctor didn't answer.

The Raven was silent and broody for a while after that. The Doctor meandered around looking and poking at things. After a while, the Raven strode over to a wooden chest covered in dirt, and pulled out a gun, thrusting it at the Doctor. The Doctor jumped back.

"Nope! No guns. I don't do guns.", the Doctor exclaimed, looking at the weapon distastefully.

"You need to arm yourself", the Raven insisted.

 

"I've got a sonic screwdriver and a clever mind", the Doctor replied, "I'm as armed as I need to be."

The Raven shrugged.

"It doesn't matter to me whether you die or not", she growled, "Just don't get me killed with you."

"Wouldn't dream of it", the Doctor replied with a grin.

The Raven gave the Doctor a look that made him think that she was seriously considering turning him over to the Daleks herself.

"So what is our battle plan?", the Doctor asked cheerfully.

The Raven turned another one of her withering stares at the Doctor.

"Our battle plan is to not get killed."

"Very good battle plan", the Doctor replied, "very good."

The Raven considered the man in front of her for a moment.

"Do you know how to defeat the Daleks?", she asked quietly.

"I can try", the Doctor replied, carefully trying to not make a promise.

"Many people have tried before. Good people. They died."

"I've defeated them before", the Doctor admitted.

"Then I will fight by your side", the Raven decided, "until my death."

The Doctor flinched.

"Hopefully it won't come to that", he whispered.

"I'm not a child, Doctor", the Raven huffed, "I know how these things are."


	3. Chapter 3

"Tell me about that cave", the Doctor instructed.

"It is an Aaliyan cave. It glows from the power of the people who believe in it. It is alive, in a way. When there is no longer any human or living being who believes, it will die."

"What happens if it dies?", the Doctor inquired.

"It just becomes like any other cave", the Raven shrugged.

"Is it rare?"

The Raven shrugged again.

"I'm sure it's not the only one out there. It's a big universe."

"Do you believe in it? In gods?", the Doctor asked curiously.

The Raven turned her ever-present glare back on the Doctor.

"I don't believe in anything anymore."

"Some people would say that was sad", the Doctor murmured.

"It is too dangerous to believe in things. Believing in things gets you killed."

"Some others might say that living a life without believing in something isn't living at all", the Doctor replied.

"Well, some people have no sense."

The Doctor frowned and then grinned.

" _That_ is something I can agree with."

The Doctor jumped to his feet and started heading back to the Aaliyan cave.

"Where are we going?", the Raven asked, hurrying to catch up.

"Back to the cave! I need to figure out what that cave is made of and why the Daleks chose it."


	4. Chapter 4

The Doctor approached the cave and pulled out his sonic screwdriver.

"What does that do?", the Raven asked.

"A lot of things", the Doctor replied, "It opens doors, takes measurements, tells me when the kettle is about to boil."

"You are possibly the most irritating and roundabout person I have ever met", the Raven grumbled.

"Thank you."

The Doctor pointed the screwdriver at the cave wall, but not before putting it on silent mode. The little green light glowed, and the Doctor read the output. 

They retreated back into the safety of the woods. The Doctor flipped the silent mode off and began to take readings from the trees around him.

"If there is a silent mode on that thing, why don't you always leave it on silent?", the Raven asked.

The Doctor frowned.

"I like the noise it makes! Why are you always asking silly questions?"

"Because you behave like a six year old child."

The Doctor turned one of his own glares at the Raven.

"So have you figured out how you're going to defeat the Daleks this time", the Raven asked.

"I'm going to march into the cave and figure out what they're doing", the Doctor announced proudly.

"And that sort of thing works for you, usually?", the Raven questioned dubiously.

"Nope. But it's always worth a try!"

The Doctor grinned at the Raven. She glared, but nodded and patted her gun in the holster.

"Alright then, let us go. We won't have daylight for much longer."

The Doctor looked around him. He wasn't sure if he would call the dark purple glow coming from the sky 'daylight', but to each his own.

Since they were no longer attempting to be stealthy, it was a much shorter journey down to the cave.

The Doctor spun around to face the Raven before they got to the mouth of the cave.

"You stay here", he instructed.

"Like hell I will", the Raven growled before pushing her way in front of him and marching into the cave.

The Doctor had to stumble to catch up.

"DALEKS!", the Raven shouted.

The Doctor noticed that she had cleverly hid her gun underneath a dirty looking scarf tied around her waist.

A Dalek guard rolled up to meet them. 

" _YOU ARE THE RAVEN. UNBELIEVER! PREPARE TO BE EXTERMINATED!_ ", the Dalek intoned.

"Wait!", the Doctor shouted. 

The Dalek turned to face him. 

" _YOU ARE THE DOCTOR. ENEMY OF THE DALEKS. PREPARE TO BE EXTERMINATED!_ "

"Well, that wasn't _exactly_ what I had in mind... but...", the Doctor murmured.

The Raven grabbed him by the hand.

"Run!", she commanded.


	5. Chapter 5

They ran as fast as they could with the Doctor constantly spinning around to look at the glowing swirls moving along the walls.

"I love new planets!", he whispered.

"Doctor!", the Raven shouted.

A Dalek had rolled right behind him. 

" _EXTERMINATE_ ", it beeped.

The Doctor grabbed the hat off his head and slipped it onto the eyestalk.

"See? The hat isn't so silly after all!", the Doctor shouted as he shot a wink at the Raven.

The Raven rolled her eyes. Then, she quickly knelt down, as if something on the floor had caught her eye.

"What is it?" the Doctor asked.

"I don't know", the Raven replied quietly.

The Doctor finally saw what she was seeing. A pink gooey substance was lined around the cave walls.

"Don't touch that!", he shouted.

The Raven drew her hand back in surprise.

"It is Antrol, an explosive."

The Raven furrowed her eyebrows.

"I don't understand. Why would the Daleks want to blow the cave up?"

"I don't know", the Doctor answered. "Well, I don't know yet."

He jumped to his feet and motioned for the Raven to follow him. 

"Let's go find out!"

They hurried along a cave corridor for a while.

"What's over there?", the Raven asked, stopping and pointing at a cluster of large leaves in a pile on the floor.

The Doctor walked over and began to move some of the leaves aside, revealing a pile of bodies.

"These are the Dalek believers", the Raven noticed, frowning.

"What?!"

"Why would they kill their own soldiers?"

As if on cue, a large cluster of Daleks appeared. 

"What are you attempting to do, Daleks?!", the Doctor shouted, knowing that the Daleks weren't known for keeping their master plans to themselves.

"THIS IS THE LAST OF THE AALIYAN CAVES. DALEKS LIVE TO EXTERMINATE."

The Doctor nodded.

"Of course. That's the way it always is with you lot, isn't it? Find something beautiful and brilliant, and then find a way to destroy it", the Doctor sighed, "But there was something wrong, wasn't there? You found out you couldn't just blow the place up. It _lives_. You have to cut off the life source. Which is why you went around rounding up those believers in these gods and began to kill _them_ as well."

The Doctor could feel the Raven tense up next to him.

"But you found a problem. Even _your_ followers were believing in something. So you had to kill them off as well. So now the cave is dying. I can feel it as well as you can. But then again, you're Daleks. You don't feel _anything_ ", the Doctor went on, "But the Raven here, can feel! Can't you Raven?"

The Raven nodded weakly.

"So there you go Raven! That is how we're going to defeat this lot here! You've got to _believe_ in something!", the Doctor shouted triumphantly.

The Raven looked panicked.

"Why can't you do it?", she asked.

"Because the cave runs off of human thought patterns, and I am not human!"

"You're not human?"

"Getting off the point, Raven! Believe in something!"

"What?!"

"Anything!"

The Raven took a look around the cave and saw the glowing swirls on the walls begin to fade. She looked at the Daleks that had been hunting her and her family for the past four years, and then she looked at the absolutely insane man in front of her. She believed in him.

The Raven believed in the Doctor. She believed that he could save her. She believed that he could defeat the Daleks. She _believed_.

The cave walls began to shimmer in a way that the Raven had never seen them before. The swirls seemed to slide off of the walls and the air felt warm. 

The Doctor turned and grinned at her, and the Raven couldn't help but smile a small smile back.

" _CEASE YOUR ACTIVITY IMMEDIATELY_ ", one of the Daleks yelled.

" _EXTERMINATE_ ", another added helpfully.

"No you don't!", the Doctor exclaimed, rolling in a strangely soldier-like manner to the wall of the cave.

He held his sonic screwdriver against the Antrol.

"You hurt her, and we all go up in a boom!"

The Daleks froze, and the Raven grabbed the Doctor by his shoulders and pushed him until they found their way out of the cave.

"Can you set off the explosive from here?", the Raven asked urgently.

The Doctor frowned.

"Yes, I can... but"

"Do it now!", the Raven interrupted.

"I can't!"

"What do you mean?", the Raven asked angrily.

"I've got to give them a chance to leave", the Doctor argued.

"They've killed the entire population of this planet. You've given them enough leeway. Kill them   
now!"

The Doctor shook his head. The Raven looked furious.   
"If you don't do it, I'll go in there and set them alight myself!", she shouted.

The Doctor grabbed her arm. 

"Give me five minutes", he asked.

The Raven shook her head.

"Three?"

"Two."

The Doctor turned around frantically, looking to see what he could do. The TARDIS! It was only a couple of meters from where they stopped. He ran inside and grabbed a megaphone.

"DALEKS!", he shouted at the cave, "Leave this planet now, and I'll let you go in peace!"

Daleks began to gather at the mouth of the cave.

" _WE DO NOT SURRENDER OR RETREAT! EXTERMINATE_!"

They began to shoot electric beams in the direction of the Doctor and the Raven.

The Doctor sighed sadly and reached into his pocket. He adjusted the settings on his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the cave, setting off the explosives.

The Doctor and the Raven ducked behind a well-placed boulder. After the dust settled, they approached the cave. The Daleks were all dead.

"They're... finished", the Raven breathed.

The Doctor nodded.

"You gave them a chance", the Raven mentioned, "Why?"

"Everyone deserves a second chance", the Doctor replied softly.

"You've given the Daleks more than once chance before though", the Raven guessed.

The Doctor nodded.  
"I don't know how you do it", she mused, looking around at the remains of the alien race which had decimated all of the people she had ever known.


	6. Chapter 6

They were back at the place they first met. The Raven was trying to start a fire, but it was too dark. The Doctor sat on a log, examining a strange looking flower.

"Why do you hate me, Raven?", the Doctor asked suddenly.

"I don't like people who are going to leave me behind.", the Raven replied simply. She then glanced up to glare at the Doctor. "Don't tell me you won't, because we both know that isn't true."


	7. Chapter 7

"This is my TARDIS. Time and Relative Dimensions in Space.", the Doctor announced proudly as he pushed the doors open.

The Raven absentmindedly holstered her gun, as she looked at the sight in front of her. She took one step into the TARDIS and then stepped back out, walking in a loop around the blue box with wide eyes. She walked back through the doors and up the short staircase onto the console platform.

"Its..."

"Bigger on the inside", the Doctor finished with a smug grin.

"How?"

"It was a science back from where I came from."

The Raven glanced at the Doctor. The Doctor was a little relieved that she didn't ask him about Gallifrey. He wasn't really in the mood for talking about home.

"What does it do? It hasn't always been here, so it must be able to move", the Raven mused.

"It travels through space", the Doctor replied, "and time."

"When are you leaving?", the Raven asked. "Are you going now?"

The Doctor nodded.

"Come with me", he offered quietly.

The Raven took a long look at the TARDIS before answering.

"Why?", she asked with narrowed eyes.

"You're not going to ask where?"

"It doesn't matter where. I have nothing left here. I want to know why you want to take me. I don't even like you."

"An old friend once told me that I should never travel alone", the Doctor answered plainly.

She considered his answer for a while, and then nodded her head.

"Why are you considering coming with me?", the Doctor asked, feeling that it was a fair trade. "You obviously do not like me."

The Raven glared at him.

"I don't like you. But there is nothing left for me here. You're the last of your kind. I am too, in a way. But you let your loss make you stronger. You don't let your hate overtake you.", the Raven looked like she was trying her best not to spit the words out. "You help people. I want to do that."

The Doctor nodded slowly.

"Also, I want to learn something from you. Mercy. I think I've forgotten how important mercy is", the Raven added softly.

It was then that the Doctor decided that he was not going to let the Raven die. The universe be damned.


	8. Chapter 8

The Doctor pushed the doors of the TARDIS open again and was about to usher the Raven inside, when he remembered something.

"Rule number one: No guns in the TARDIS", the Doctor clucked, swinging the door open.

The Raven looked down at the gun in her hand. The gun which she had for so long that it had felt a part of her. She turned to look at the strange man in front of her.

"Do you promise that where we are going, I won't need it?", she asked seriously.

"I promise", the Doctor answered.

It was the first lie that he had told her, and they both knew it.

The Raven took a deep breath and then flicked the safety off and fired one shot into the ground, leaning over to pick up the empty casing. She held the casing in the palm of her hand for a moment before pocketing it. She then emptied the cartridge and scattered the handful of bullets outside. She turned and took a long look at the interior of the TARDIS and then unceremoniously tossed the gun into a bush, spinning around to walk back into the TARDIS, not looking back at her planet.

"I'm ready to go now."

"Where do you want to go?", the Doctor asked.

The Raven looked back at the closed TARDIS doors.

"Anywhere is better than here."

The Doctor whooped and spun around the TARDIS console, pushing buttons and pulling levers.

"You act so serious sometimes, but you really are just a child inside, aren't you?", the Raven asked.

"As an old friend of mine used to say 'You might want to find something to hold on to'", the Doctor laughed and then pulled a lever.

The Raven's eyes widened as she grabbed onto a handhold on the console, just before the TARDIS began to pitch this way and that. 

"What is that noise?", the Raven shouted.

"The best sound in the world!", the Doctor yelled back with a grin.


	9. Chapter 9

The Doctor fiddled with his sonic screwdriver and listened to the light happy whir of his TARDIS. 

The Raven walked in, much cleaner than the Doctor had ever seen her, and wearing a dark grey t-shirt and khaki slacks. She seemed somewhat softer than she had before, but her eyes were still filled with fire and anger. She lifted her chin defiantly and narrowed her eyes, as if she were daring the Doctor to laugh at her relatively clean state.

"Raven", the Doctor greeted with a nod.

"Mara", the Raven replied softly, "You can call me Mara."

The Doctor smiled brightly.

"Alright then, Mara. Are you ready to explore the universe?"


End file.
